Durban’s Super Giants’ (DSG) magnificent run saw them become the first team to qualify for the playoffs in the second edition of SA20. The game on Sunday, January 28 against Paarl Royals was another example of why this team is still at the top of the table as if the last match’s hero Quinton de Kock couldn’t deliver, Matthew Breetzke did, Marcus Stoinis did and Heinrich Klaasen is just in a different league altogether. Coming to bat in the 17th over, Klaasen smashed the fastest-ever fifty in SA20 history off just 16 balls.

Klaasen hit three sixes against the left-arm spinner Fabian Allen in three deliveries in the 19th over before completing a sensation fifty to break Donovan Ferreira’s record, who achieved the same feat off just 18 balls a few days ago in this very edition. Klaasen’s 16-ball blitz was also the second fastest fifty by a South African batter as Farhaan Behardien’s 14-ball fifty in 2016 is still at the top of the ladder.

Fastest fifty in SA20 (in terms of number of balls)

16 – Heinrich Klaasen (DSG vs PR), 2024

18 – Donovan Ferreira (JSK vs PC), 2024
19 – Heinrich Klaasen (DSG vs PR), 2023

Fastest T20 fifty by a South African batter (in terms of number of balls)

14 – Farhaan Behardien (Titans vs Warriors), 2016
16 – Heinrich Klaasen (Durban’s Super Giants vs Paarl Royals), 2024
17 – Lance Klusener (Mountaineers vs Southern Rocks), 2010

As far as the match is concerned, Klaasen and Breetzke’s knocks helped DSG get to a score of 208, which was nowhere in the picture four overs before. And the scoreboard pressure was telling on the Paarl batters as apart from Mitchell van Buuren, no other batter could do anything. For DSG, Noor Ahmad’s 5/11 helped them bowl out the Royals for just 83 to register a massive 125-run win.